Diapherodes similis (Rehn, 1904)

Description

Color. Yellowish brown.

Male. Immature. Head with a pair of large, unequal black-tipped spines, behind which is a pair of small tubercles. Pronotum with two pairs of spines before the median sulcus; mesonotum with ten black-tipped spines. Mesosternum with four pairs of tubercles; metasternum with one such pair. Meso- and metapleurae tuberculate. Abdominal segment X emarginate apically. Lower median carina of anterior femora with two spines; lower median carina of middle and posterior femora with five spines; posterior first tarsomere a longer than the next three together. Tegmina yellow in color with green stripes; wings fully developed, reaching to abdominal segment VI, anterior area yellow with green stripes, posterior area a very light rose color.

Female. Head with large unequal spines, behind which is a series of smaller spines. Pronotum with numerous spines; mesonotum irregularly spinose. Mesoternum with 12 or more small spines. Meso- and metapleurae spinose. Abdominal tergites II-IV with apical retrorse spiniform processes, VII with the lateral margins gently rounded, X with the apex triangularly emarginate. Supraanal plate carinate, rectangular. Subgenital plate elongate. Lower median carina of anterior femora with two spines; lower median carina of middle and posterior femora with five or six spines; posterior first tarsomere longer than the next three together. Tegmina present; wing the same length as the tegmina.

Geographic distribution. Swan Island in the Caribbean Sea.

Type material.
A. similis.
An immature male. Swan Isl. Caribbean Sea. Type No. 7343. [ USNM ]

Systematic notes. I could not find the female paratype in the USNM collection, so the description and measurements of it are based on Rehn’s original diagnosis. The nymphal male is in the penultimate instar, and, in view of its very short wing pads, may prove to be brachypterous, as is scabricollis.